GSK Initiatives Embarks on Campaign Against Child Abuse and Neglect at Ado Ekiti

Child abuse has become an escalating phenomenon that poses a great risk to the general development of children from every walk of life and it has been a major challenge to our society till date. Various forms of child abuse exist; they can take the form of child neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse and emotional abuse. Studies worldwide have shown that all forms of child abuse are indeed a serious international crime which requires adequate attention and intervention. The United Nations General Assembly adopted the convention on the right of the child. This convention respects the child as a human being with personal dignity and rights. The child is seen internationally as a person of intrinsic worth entitled to respect equal to the rights enjoyed by every adult. However, this child right law has not been fully implemented, especially in many homes and local communities in Nigeria.

In Ekiti state, there are many local communities where the inhabitants are less informed and educated. Many of these people use children for labour, begging for alms and hawking during school hours. These acts are borne out of ignorance and poverty by many of them, hence the need to educate them through a sensitization programme.

This is the reason why we chose to start our community development service which, for the benefits of our kids, took the form of orientation campaign against Child Abuse/Neglect. The first of its kind. The campaign took place yesterday, 31st January, 2018 at notable markets in the city, with the grand finale of this first phase at the popular Oja Oba in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State. It was a movement for all, and a craving for more friendly environments for kids and young people. A roll of pictures shot at every scene of the programme yesterday tells the story more.

We however share these testimonials via these media to ensure that we galvanize more actions from you and push to crave your support in the re-orientation project.

We can't afford child neglect in our societies again
 Every child deserves care, love and compassion
Let us give their plights a voice together...

Global Support for Kids Initiative needs you to create an enviable space for all kids and young people!!!

GSK Initiative Condemns the Cruel Displinary Measures of Nasarrawa School Teacher

The importance placed on the lives of children and young people in Nigeria, and many other nations around the world has grown rapidly in recent decades. This is partly a result of the interest of these nations to secure a future for the people's existence and majorly because of the need for an organized social sustainability system that would transcend the present and help retain the pillars of global citizenship on the larger scale. These social imperatives have come to define, among other important factors, the reason why children and young people have come to mean a lot to the State. In recent times, Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State conducted a competency test for all primary school teachers across the State. To the surprise of majority of the residents, more than 70 percent of this teachers failed the test. The public uproar that echoed the condemnation of this sad development made Kaduna and the young minds under the tutelage of these teachers subjects of public pity.

This horrible development and the public reaction that followed it is an indication of the general interest of citizens in the  lives and performance of young people within the country. An equal sad development of the same magnitude is the one that took the air from Nasarrawa State early this week. The video clip went viral on the internet showing a Government Science Secondary School teacher proudly flogging a group of students without a token of mercy. The students who were reported to have resumed late to school after the holiday were brutally flogged in the presence of many other students and teachers on an assembly ground. Global Support for Kids Initiative has come to condemn this act. It shouldn't happen that students should be treated as mere objects where they are legitimately considered a very important part of the society.

In this regard, we have come to condemn this vicious act on the two grounds that the disciplinary measure adopted by the School teacher is a path to 'animalizing' the pride of the nation. We came to this conclusion after considering the degree at which the said teacher meted his frustration on these students. The school as an institution is expected to humanize them. A better evaluation would nonetheless find the students as victims of a psychic disorder from the teacher who considers the students as 'qualified' subjects for abreaction. This is wrong. Also, we condemn this act having studied the rate at which similar occurrence has grown in Nigerian pre-varsity institutions. The pain is not only in the fact that these teachers are demoralizing their innocent victims or in the fact that they are trying to displace them psychologically, although those are also salient; but most fundamentally in the fact that they are not building the students in line with what the nation requires of the system. By killing their sense of self, studies show that they are more likely to become grand subjects in a typical psychological problem which unfortunately was caused them by the society they belong.

Against this background, we at GSK Initiative expressly call for a massive cleansing of the school system within the State. We consider the fact that this is not likely exclusive to Government Science Secondary School alone. It is in this regard that we charge the Nasarrawa State Ministry of Education to heed the call of re-locating the ideal sense of the school system and ensure strict enforcement among stakeholders. Displinary measures are necessary, but should not be taking in this manner. It shouldn't be the ground through which the child get disfigured psychologically. In sanitising Nigeria, we have considered the imperatives of getting everyone into the job and that does not exclude these young people. It would be wise if we treat them with respect in the interest of every citizen of Nigeria, and the global community in general.

On Benue Killings

Nigeria, over the past few years has suffered a lot of setbacks in the key aspects of social security and sense of community. Such has resulted into incessant killings and displacements which have come to subject the nation to a serious integrity question. Today, the narrative of the Nigerian nation has been greeted with many negative symbols which cause a lot of discomfort to the citizenry and other concerned individuals. This is the premise upon which we in Global Support for Kids Initiative condemn the recent attack on the people of Benue state of Nigeria by the Fulani herdsmen who have serially been reported as terrors to the people of the State.

Upon receiving the information of the 12th January, 2018 attack which claimed lives rounding up to 50, we felt the shock of such inhumanity which fellow countrymen meted on others and that leaves us wondering what the future holds for the country if such is not vehemently attacked and criticized to a halt. This, among other important factors, decidedly introduced our CONDEMNATION of such act, noting it as the peak of wickedness and an extreme insensitivity to the bond that holds all the ethnic groups in Nigeria together as a people of one nation. This is against what we stand for and what we wish for the nation. In this respect, we have come to such point that we have to, as a matter of urgency, start a wide and 'wild' campaign against such act of terrorism that is capable of subjecting children and young people in Nigeria to an unnatural suffering which their various losses may bring them.

In our study of how this began, we realized that this horrible act has been at war with the people's security since the year 2013 when on February of that year, 186 people lost their lives to these Fulani herdsmen who placed more value on their cows than their fellow countrymen. Since then, the people have been in perpetual fear of being attacked. These faceless humans-turn-beasts have killed both young and old to the tune of 1,413 between February, 2013 and January 2, 2018. Not leaving the masses into this daring act, they attacked the former Governor Suswam and his convoy on 14th March, 2014 leaving him and his men to scurry into hiding. The same way they attacked the former Senate President of the Federation on 11th March, 2016. All of these are indices that these beasts are determined to make the nation inhabitable for their victims. This is the reason why the Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Peter Ayodele Fayose signed the 'Prohibition of Cattle and Other Ruminants Grazing Bill' in Ekiti on 1st September, 2016. This, in the last two weeks also culminated into his approval of various measures to bring any herdsman found in Ekiti to book. This is the tragedy that succeeded the Boko Haram insurgency that the nation has still not recovered from.


While the death toll has risen to over a thousand, there are over ten thousand people that have been displaced by this scourge. In our observation, we realize that every physical displacement comes with an equal psychological displacement which causes a lot of problems to the victim. In a more explicit sense, it is the root cause of what we term death by installment. Our children and young people have a lot to lose from these unnatural disaster. Being orphaned or displaced at a tender age, experience have shown us that many kids are bound to suffer a great deal of psychological trauma which may result to a break of core parts of their psychological buildup. Furthermore, we have come to understand this can result to different problems that would condition the young person into the perpetual life of abusing drugs. Many eventually become criminals or new breeds of terrorists.  We are determined, by the call of our vision in GSK Initiative to ensure that this has no place in our country; not in the West, East, North or in the South.

In this regard, we call on all government agencies to wade into this horrible situation and ensure that ranches are provided for these herdsmen so that there would be no excuse for their sheer sense of inhumanity. We have come face to face with this scourge for too long and we can't afford to jeopardize our vision for such act as this. In a similar perspective, we implore all Nigerians, both young and old, to live beyond this trying times by tuning their senses to the hope of fighting this scourge to a halt through a collective re-visioning of the bond we have together. We sympathize with the victims and hope to create enough grounds, within the capacity of our Initiative, to see to the wellbeing of subjects-victims.

STREET BEGGING - A MEANS OF LIVELIHOOD FOR STREET CHILDREN

This article explores the working lives of street children especially in Africa, with focus on the analysis of begging. The practice of begging is complex, largely depending on the changing nature of children's livelihood, economic capacity, and relations with both the public and their families. Many children view begging as shameful activity and would prefer to avoid if they had alternatives, but the street children have no choice.

To examine the different means of survival by the street children, there exist three broad categories of informal activity: street begging, street daily labour and street vendor.

There exist casual and consequential correlation between begging, homeless, poverty, and mental illness, inadequate access to housing, income, and health support services.

Factors associated with begging are:

Poverty: Indication of poverty includes poor health care, malnutrition, unemployment and lack of education. These were usually measured with regards to specific calories intake as well as earnings per capita (FGN/UNICEF, 1990). In survey from developed countries, it was observed that a child living in a solo-mother family is five times as likely to live below the national poverty level, especially when both economic and parenting responsibilities fall on only ‘one pair of shoulders; (UNICEF, 1996). In alleviating their sufferings 55% of children were sent out as street workers in Nigeria, by their mothers (FGN/UNICEF, 1990).

Homelessness: UNICEF report stressed that 100 million street children worldwide are homeless, and about 15,000 children in Nigeria alone are homeless. Literature also shown that 43% of beggars were long-term homeless, out of which 71% of them slept rough (Horn & Cooke, 2001). Danczuk (2000) found that 80% of people who beg are homeless.

Break Down of the Family System: Oluwole (cited in Aye, 1996) was of the view that most children ran away from their homes with complaints that their fathers’ wives were too strict or that parents were too busy to care for them. Some forms of separation or divorce exert financial pressure on a partner and results into mothers sending their children out to beg on the streets (FGN/UNICEF, 1990).

Mental illness and Drugs: In a study by Wolf (2005), some respondents attributed the reasons for begging to addictive disorders such as alcohol dependency (41%) and drug dependency (24%) while most of the beggars spent money received from begging on irresponsible and unnecessary items, like drugs, alcohol and tobacco. Similarly, 45-47 respondents experienced drug dependency, 33-45% experienced problematic alcohol use and 50% had a physical, intellectual or psychiatric disability (Danczuk, 2000; Jowette, Banks, & Brown, 2001).

Unemployment: In the Nigerian situation, Federal Government of Nigeria and UNICEF (1990) viewed street begging in terms of the economic situation of poor urban families, whereby children were subjected to working conditions, for the survival of the families involved.

Cultural and Religious Factors: In Nigeria, especially the northern part of the country, begging seems to be a cultural practice. For instance, it is common to see most nursing mothers who have twins begging for alms in the market places. They believe that children draw sympathy from passers-by who are moved with pity to give generously so as to help the mothers cater for them. Similarly, among the Indians, it is a traditional practice and a duty to give alms to beggars, especially the ‘Sadhus’, whose traditional way of life limits any income. They believe that even Shiva the Hindu god ran his household from begging alms (Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia, 2007).

In terms of religion, alms giving is regarded as one of the pillars of Islam, were by beggars are believed to bring blessings to others and in so doing, provides them with an opportunity for earning merit. Therefore, the wealthy give alms in fulfillment of religious obligation. In Nigeria, the ‘Almajiral’ system of education, which encourages children to move from place to place, contributes to destitution. The Almajirai is a system of Qu’ ranic education in Northern Nigeria, which existed before the 18th century jihad of Usman Danfodio. It was observed that the system is now a problem for being responsible for rural-urban migration (of children in particular), breeding touts and criminals as well as denying the potential leaders of tomorrow the opportunity of good life. The pilot study conducted by the National Council for the welfare of Destitute (NCWD) in 408 Almajirai schools in three towns in Kaduna State, revealed that there were over 30,000 Almajirais in these towns. This also noted that 21 million Nigerian children are out of school (Formal Education) as a result of destitution. Similarly Adefowokan (2007) observed that the ‘Almajirinchi’ refers to a practice of being an “Almajiri’, whereby young boys study under Islamic clerics. The ultimate expectations for the boys leaving their families to be become Allah’s servants and to gain support financially and materially from communities but unfortunately many of them end up in the streets, begging.

Consequences of Street Begging:

Some of the consequences of begging as a means of livelihood for street children includes:

Sexual Abuse: The dependency on public individuals by street children has its dangers. One of such is that some of them have been identified as victims of HIV/AIDS. The chances of contracting AIDS and other Sexually Transmitted Diseases are much higher for these children. Young girls are the most vulnerable, chances are that they end up with unplanned pregnancies, as seen in the case of most female beggars in Nigeria.

Kidnapping and Prostitution: Trafficking in children in recent times is most distressing and inhuman, as a result of poverty. The street children are at the risk of kidnapping and the female among them are forced into prostitution by individuals. These children are left with no choice because they want to survive.

Crime and illegal drugs trade: The street children are victims of illegal drug trafficking, due to promises of better life by ring of traffickers.

Accident risks: Street begging could be risky to life especially in areas where there is heavy traffic. The street children stand the risk of being run over by careless drivers.

How can we help ?

·    Provide them with food, clothing, shelter, education, health care, love, protection and basic rights

·         Prevent conflict within their family

·         Reduce poverty in the communities and homes

·         Reduce the spread of HIV/AIDs

·         Enforce law system to protect them

·         Promote their integration into society

·         Encourage more programs that support them

·         Promote child's rights